Sunday, June 3, 2007

My post @ Pakistaniat.com

Recently found this great site : found an article where the people went bonkers over the posts thread. It was about the lal masjid incident and the replies were really disturbing and revealing.They were either too liberal....someone even ridiculed the fact that we are called 'Islamic' Republic and that this was a gimmick by the mily to appease the mullahs......or too 'holier than thou' typically mullah. I had something to say so i posted here and gave the link at the site.I plan to artculate these thoughts better and with evidence to back up, but i think i manage to get the point through.

I decided to read the entire thread before i made my contribution and all the way down i oscillated left to right. My actual opinion shifted in the course of my reading.At the bottom now i realise something. I am neither. And neither is Pakistan.And neither for that matter is Islam.

(I abhor the phrase Moderate Muslim. It feels like a muslim who takes his deen 'moderately'. In other words, a hypocrite.The thing about islam is : there are no two ways about it.either ure in or youre out. BUT when ure in, theres the flexibility and ease...all that is asked is that you have conviction in your beliefs and the promise you make. )

I say this because we have to realise that the only thing that remotely hold the people of pakistan together as a whole is our religion. That even barely.

We have no common language. You go kilometers from any major city into a rural area ( the bulk of our population) and no one speaks urdu.

Nationalism and secularism have failed at least twice. Many would argue due to external sabotage, but i would say its more internal sabotage (fauj etc) or because our people are not cut out for secularism or socialism, the bulk of our society is too primitively structured.Our cultures are as diverse and varied as the landscape, (which is all well and good, celebrate diversity etc.) but its seems to further divide us.

Every person you talk to if not asks, at least wonders about your caste and race. There is no such thing as a 'Pakistani' race. Most separatist groups are based on race.

The financial situation of our country mimics that of louis XIV's regime in France. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. (Hegel sleeps soundly in his grave).

The only time that Pakistanis stand shoulder to shoulder any more is when theyre offering bajamat prayer. I have always loved juma prayer because of the way it forces labourer and ceo and general and student to rub shoulders and kneel in sajda alike. The pious 5 times a day namazis are joined by the 'not so pious'. People pull up their shalwars and jeans and then Allah o Akbar. Only the mosque has the power to do that. Even though religion is often what divides people. But the way it unifies them by cutting across race, caste, money, culture is more powerful. Only a common ideology can save us because only an ideology can seep through the complex power structures that have evolved in Pakistan (jagirdar, biradri, zamindar, warlord, etc).

And now. Incidents like this are destroying the unifying power of islam. Alienating the moderates and the mullahs, creating a new rift based on self righteousness, finger pointing and name calling.

I say these things because recently i realised with a shock how close pakistan has come to a civil war. Just imagine if imran khan had become hotheaded and gone to khi. His part member or worse, he wouldve been killed and then all hell wouldve broken loose. The country would split between the mullahs+pakhtoonistan seperatists and the army/liberals and parties like MQM. If we encounter such a situation then only the more extreme can win. Either the mullahs would be eradicated and theres no more islam, just another useless American colony. Or the liberals are eradicated and we are in the stone age like Afganistan.

Khuda ke wastay realise that Islam is neither. 'let there be no compulsion in religion' does not mean there is no accountability in matters of sharia law (public indecency, selling and consuming alcohol, zina) and that does not mean you prescribe an official 'mandatory length of facial hair' or 'standard blue female body hiding device' like the Taliban.

And realise that the only thing common about the people is the patch of land we share and our kalima. Islam in its true spirit (the central logical path not mullah, not secular) can be the answer.